Shilli-Fully Travels

Returning to the Perth area, we had a stopover in Hyden. Throughout this area of WA, we drove through the Wheat Belt, which covers 155,000 sq km (a bit larger than England and Wales). As its name suggests, it comprises what seems like endless fields of wheat dotted with large grain silos and bins. The wheat is transported by road trains upto 42m in length carrying the wheat to railways and harbours.

Hyden, with a population of less than 400, has one motel (and a couple of campsites) supporting the tourists visiting nearby Wave Rock and passing truck drivers. At the motel reception we had a lesson on the local poisonous snakes and a request not to park in the truck park. Dinner comprised buying meat from a counter, cooking it yourself, a trip to a salad bar and BYO wine. A simple but very good arrangement.

Wave Rock is a geological formation of granite 15m high and 110m long on the edge of a solitary hill. Adjacent is Hippos Yawn, the name being evident from a visit.

In 2008 a wealthy man from Margaret River decided to build a replica of Stonhenge, as it is thought to have been originally built to the same scale, using pink granite from Esperance. The blocks, weighing upto 55 tonnes, were to be transported 711km by road. The quarrying completed and the money having run dry, it was then realised that this was a bad idea and the project was cancelled. In 2011 a local farmer took over the project and completed it 1km from the quarry and it has now become a local tourist attraction. It is just off the road to Lucky Bay, so the local government decided to build a fence along the road to prevent the dangers of “rubber necking” near the crest of a hill; maybe a solution for the A303.

Esperance is the last significant town of WA before the border with South Australia, although it is still over 700km away as the crow flies. Esperance has a population of less than 14,000 in its shire, which covers over 42,000 sq km (twice the size of Wales). When we booked our trip for the first time, before the pandemic, one of the main attractions was its pink lakes; which are now no longer pink due to weather conditions.

However, the area around Esperance has mile upon mile of the most beautiful bays and beaches we have ever seen. Inspite of this, they are very quiet as Esperance is so far from anywhere and only has a handful of basic motels and campsites. The best known beach , Lucky Bay, named by Captain Flinders who found safe anchorage there, was voted the Best Beach in the World in 2023. Our favourite, because it was even quieter was Twighlight Bay beach, but it was almost impossible to chose as there were so many with very few people. In all, over two days, we visited around a dozen for picnics, swimming, walks and photo stops.

A two hour drive east of Albany is the small town of Bremer Bay, population 211. During the months of January – April, it becomes the the home of Whale Watch Western Australia, who operate daily boat tours in search of Orcas. The tours are run by a crew, the key members of whom are members of the family owners of the business, who are passionate about the orcas and are closely involved with scientists in orca data gathering and research. As they spend so much time with the orcas they can recognise pods and members of the pods from their size and markings and are therefore able to name them- every name has a story.

An area of the ocean approximately 20km from Bremer Bay is rich in the nutrients on which giant squid feed. The squid can exceed 10m in length and attract orcas and whales which feed upon them. The orcas will also kill and feed on beaked whales.

We followed a pod of orcas hunting for beaked whales over several hours. On this occasion, the whales escaped despite an amazing display of teamwork led by the main female, named Sheryl. On the way back we saw a second pod with evidence of two squid kills. This pod is led by Queen, named because she is the cleverest and best hunter.

On 1 November 1914 the first contingent of soldiers from Australia and New Zealand left for Europe from Albany in 36 ships carrying 30,000 men and women (primarily nurses) and 12,000 horses, destined ultimately for Gallipoli. On 1 November 2014, the National ANZAC Centre was opened on the hill top overlooking the harbour they sailed from, to commemorate and tell their stories. Visitors are given the identity of one of 32 individuals to follow in interactive displays. Sarah was the commander in chief and Tim was a photographer, both of whom subsequently died during the war.

Albany is the most southerly town in WA and also one of the largest in the state with a population of 35,000. Between 1952 and 1978 the town had a whaling station; now the main industries are tourism, fishing and agriculture, which includes a small but growing wine industry. In 2015, Oranje Tractor, a small eco vineyard was visited by Charles and Camilla (they also visited the National Anzac Centre) and we followed in their footsteps.

The town is surrounded by white sand beaches and a stunning coastline.

The Valley of the Giants is a National Park situated between Walpole and Denmark which are both small towns on the south coast of WA. The Giants are red tingle trees, another type of giant eucalyptus. Typically the trees grow to 45m (Nelson’s column is 51m) and can have a base circumference of 24m. The main feature at the Valley of the Giants is a 600m tree top walk amongst the canopy.

DNP is 130km long stretching along the south coast of Western Australia. It is named after a French admiral who was the first European to sight the area in 1792. To the chagrin of the locals he never actually set foot on the land bearing his name. The park contains beaches, dunes, forests and rivers. Much of the DNP is only accessible by 4WD vehicles which have had their tyre pressure reduced. There is a map symbol for such roads, of which there are quite a few in Western Australia. As our hire car was far from suitable, we found via the internet Graeme, a guide and local eco expert with all the gear required to take us across rough terrain, through the dunes and onto a 30km almost empty beach.

Karri trees are a type of eucalyptus and the tallest trees in Western Australia. Just over 20% of Western Australia is forest, with lots of it in the area we were visiting in the south west. The tallest living karri tree is just over 80m high. In the karri forest near Pemberton unsealed roads have been created to assist firefighters, together with fire lookouts on the top of some of the taller trees. The lookout trees were pegged to reach the lookouts. Since the introduction of technology such as drones, the remaining lookout trees became tourist attractions and are named – The Gloucester Tree, Diamond Tree and Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. The trees could be climbed by intrepepid tourists and locals until they were closed recently over health and safety concerns. The Dave Evans tree is 65m high with 130 pegs.

Marrianne North was an English artist who travelled extensively; many of her paintings are on display in the gallery named after her in Kew Gardens. She visited the area in 1880 and painted a karri tree with a large bulbous growth around its trunk. The tree she painted is still alive and named after her.

We did a number of hikes in the karri forests, including a few sections of the Bibbulmun Track, a l,000km walking trail stretching from the Perth Hills to Albany in the south coast.

Pemberton was established in 1862, following an expedition a year earlier and is named after one of the members of the expedition. The town was built in the centre of hardwood forests, mainly Karri, which was felled and used to make railway sleepers, including apparently for the London Underground. The surrounding area remains heavily forested, as clearing the forests has been tightly regulated for a number of decades. The areas that have been cleared are mostly used for farming, including wineries and a lucrative avocado industry and tourism.

The town has a population of around 600. We stayed for five nights about 10km from Pemberton in a cabin, next to a lake, on a vineyard owned by a Perth (Australia) engineer, originally from Scotland. We were given a tour of the winemaking facility by the winemaker, tasting the wine directly from the barrel. With limited restaurants, generally only opening a few nights a week, we relied on the cabin’s barbie. We were there for Sarah’s birthday and Australia Day, celebrated respectively with marron (600g, similar to a crayfish, purchased live from the producer) and steak from the local “meat mart” in Manjimup. Our marron had been farmed in fresh water dams, but they can also be caught in local lakes but only between 8th January and 5th February, with a long list of applicable regulations.